Josh McNeal Wrote:
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> Were the interiors of the business cars as plush
> as they are now? Did the Cinco Animas Corp. dress
> the B-2 and B-3 a little more than they were
> historically? I've only seen the interiors as they
> appeared from the 1980s on, are there pictures of
> what they looked like when in service? I assume
> the Nomad was the best the NG had since it is the
> one they transported Pres. Taft in. I wonder how
> plush it really was.
Of the three remaining business cars, the B7 is the most heavily modified. B7 was the Alamosa Division superintendent's car. As such it was a nice car, but not at all lavish in its interior appointments. The D&RGW rented the car for charter on the Silverton Branch in the 1960's. As the least luxurious car it didn't get out much, but the railfans loved because it was "the real thing" and because it was railroad property, there was no caretaker on board. Amos Cordova gave you the keys and told you to have a good time. The car suffered some front platform damage in the 1970's and was retired from charter service. I remember seeing it inside the Durango Roundhouse in the late 1970's. Today, B7 is Harper's private car. It has been extensively modified for that service.
The "President's Train" consisting of cars B1, B2 & B3 were set up to be the equivalent of a full-length standard gauge business car. Such a car would have commissary space, a galley, dining room, multiple state rooms, and a parlor on the rear. You simply can't put all that in one narrow gauge car. So, the railroad created a three car set to fill their needs. The interiors mirrored the decor of a typical 1910 business/private car, with lots of vanished wood, leather and mohair upholstery.
B-1 was the kitchen and commissary car, with berths for the on-board staff. It had a large kitchen/galley to serve the trailing cars. The car had an open platform on the leading end, and vestibule on the rear.
B-2 was the dining car and sleeper, having one state room and 4 sets on Pullman (upper and lower) berths as well as a dining room. It had vestibules on both ends and ran with the dining room forward, to be next to the kitchen/galley in car B1.
B-3 was the sleeper observation with a pair of Pullman berths, another stateroom and a large parlor observation room.
As a trainset, it would have been rather heavy. I imagine that with small engines in use, it had to be double headed up 4% grades. Putting it on a regular train would have required at least one more engine to pull the train. I imagine its use declined to near zero in the 1930's. There are pics of it in Salida coupled the the Shavano upon the Shavano's inauguration in 1937.
By the 1940's the trainset was pretty much in disuse. The middle car, B-2 seems to have gotten out, coupled to the B-7 on occasion. Beebe & Clegg's junket on the narrow gauge in 1947 was one occasion. The B2-B7 set seems to appear on the last northbound run on the Santa Fe Branch.
Today, B1 exists in Alamosa behind 169. It is pretty much unmodified from its days as the Commissary car on the President's Train.
B2 was sold by the RR in the 1950's, was moved to Oklahoma, was purchased by the Cinco Animas group and returned to the narrow gauge. It was overhauled and modified at the D&RGW shops in Denver. They removed the vestibule on the dining room end, and did interior modifications to include a small galley and increase the seating capacity. The Pullman berths were retained, as was much of the original woodwork. The dining room became the parlor/observation room. Today the car runs "backwards" from its days on the Presidents train.
B3 was retired by the RR in the 1950's and sold to a local in the Durango area. The car got passed around and became the property of some local well-to-do guy who set about to restore and create a masterpiece. Most all the original woodwork was retained. A galley was installed in the forward end. An extensive search was made to find period furnishings that could fit in a narrow gauge passenger car. The results were quite impressive. A generator and air conditioning was installed (the only AC'd car on the D&RGW narrow gauge!) The car was a work of art, and saw quite a bit of charter use on the Silverton branch. The car was named "Nomad" in honor of General Palmer's standard gauge car he had when he was President of the Rio Grande Western. The car was purchased by Elliot Donnelly, who joined forces with the Cinco Animas gang that owned the B2 (now named "Cinco Animas").
Through the 1970's, B2 was a regular on the tail end of the Silverton Train, frequently chartered by a regularly run tour group. B2 was the most popular because it had the highest seating capacity of the three cars.
The cars passed into D&S hands in the early 1980's. B2 & B3 have both had additional modifications done to the interiors to accommodate additional passengers.
